- Read offline
- Remove ads
- Access all content
- Use the in-app Map to find sites, and add custom locations (your hotel...)
- Build a list of your own favourites
- Search the contents with full-text search functionality
- ... and more!
Porta Romana
Florence's Best Preserved Gate
The best surviving of Florence's medivals gates left in situ after Giuseppe Poggi's boulevard building, the Porta Romana was built in 1327 and was originally known as Porta San Pier Gattolino. Its location near the Boboli gardens offered residents of the nearby Pitti Palace a quick exit from the city if need be. Plaques honour grandees who passed under its arch: Pope Leo X and Emperor Charles V, and it still has its enormous iron-clad doors designed to keep undesirables out.
The roundabout by the gate sports a statue called Dietrofront ('Turnabout') (1981-1984) by Michelangelo Pistoletto (b. 1933); the vertical female figue points to the road to Rome. The other one, sprawling on the head of the first, and looks towards Via Romana and Florence.
Image by Sailko, GNU Free Documentation License